Meanwhile in Melbourne is a curated platform to help you discover fresh and exciting Melbourne design. We feature one-on-one interviews, an evolving directory of local creatives and a calendar of design events which will be updated regularly. We have brought together all the information you need.

WORKAROUND EPISODE 01: SUEANNE WARE, Feral Architectures

In Feral Architectures SueAnne Ware explores physical catalysts for social and political change or, more simply, design activism. She aims to incite action by using counter-narratives to an unsustainable status quo. This episode adopts a Q&A style format where the panel, the audience and the host will significantly discuss design activism. SueAnne reflects upon her 20-some-years of practice through a set of critical lenses and discursive questions centring on: contesting the public realm, conflating intersectionality, provoking social engagement and embracing radical hope. In the spirit of its title, this session hopes to embody notions of feral; resulting in a wild, unrestrained or uncultivated state.

SueAnne Ware is Professor of Landscape Architecture and the Head of the School of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is a co-founder of out(fit), an all-female collective of design practitioners and a self-confessed design activist. She believes that landscape architects share a responsibility for exploring political, social and environmental agendas in public spaces. SueAnne’s projects reflect her commitment to society's marginalised communities and an exploration of issues such as drug addiction, 'illegal' refugee policies and domestic violence. She creates spaces that generate friction, where protests are permitted and possible, where attention is drawn to some of society's most pervasive issues, and passers-by may discover insight into what SueAnne hopes is a more humanitarian and compassionate approach. Her design projects have won national and international awards; including The SIEV X memorial, the Road as Shrine, and the Anti-Memorial to Heroin Overdose Victims.

WORKAROUND engages with a movement of women focused on advocacy and activism within an expanded field of architecture. Each of these practitioners works towards positive change in the built environment and its surrounding cultures. WORKAROUNDis an online broadcast and a program of live events. Across fourteen daily episodes, fourteen Australian practitioners each present a critique, conversation, interview, workshop or performance that articulates their strategies and workarounds and reflects on their activist practice.